Posts Tagged ‘Generosity’

PMA Added…

Open, generous and connected

Isn’t that what we seek from a co-worker, boss, friend or even a fellow conference attendee?

Open to new ideas, leaning forward, exploring the edges, impatient with the status quo… In a hurry to make something worth making.

Generous when given the opportunity (or restless to find the opportunity when not). Focused on giving people dignity, respect and the chance to speak up. Aware that the single most effective way to move forward is to help others move forward as well.

and connected. Part of the community, not apart from it. Hooked into the realities and dreams of the tribe. Able and interested in not only cheering people on, but shining a light on how they can accomplish their goals.

Paradoxically, the fancier the conference, the more fabled the people around the table, the less likely you are to find these attributes. These attributes, it turns out, have nothing to do with fame or resources. In fact, fear is the damper on all three. Fear of failure, intimacy and vulnerability. Fear closes us up, causes us to self-focus and to disconnect.

When we find our own foundation and are supported in our work by those around us, we can get back to first principles, to realizing our own dreams and making our own art by supporting others first and always.

Planting, harvesting and your fair share

When there is scarcity, we worry a lot about getting our fair share—what goes to him doesn’t go to me. The harvest becomes fraught with danger and competition.

When we worry more about planting, though, sharing the harvest gets a lot less complex.

Plant enough seeds and the scarcity eases. In fact, if you plant enough, you’ll never have to think twice about the harvesting.

The Power of Kindness"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." Leo Buscaglia

Gray Lawrence

Everything comes if a man will only wait. I have brought myself by long meditation to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will that will stake even existence for its fulfilment. Benjamin Disraeli

If I could share 500 words to inspire, this is the important wisdom I’d want to pass along to others…

Do it. Dare to dream. Dream big. Dream the details. Imagine the day when your dream comes true. Surround yourself with people who support your dream. In turn, support them in their dreams.

In this way, you will succeed. Be willing to sacrifice, and be willing to walk away from those who criticize or distract. Be generous and loving in your pursuits. Lift others up because you know that your biggest assets in this journey are the love and support of those around you. Let go of anyone who tries to hold you back. Do not judge, and do not allow yourself to be judged. Keep your eyes on the prize. It doesn’t matter whether people understand your intentions. It doesn’t matter if you fail in your first attempts. You will fail in your first attempts. The journey will be full of unexpected turns and amazing adventures. Take time to thoroughly enjoy achievements along the way. The biggest dreams are full of the biggest joys, the deepest disappointments and the most adversity. Through it all, keep an unrelenting focus on your goals.

“Dream” is a verb. It is an act that starts with a single thought. It’s not something that happens to you. It’s not a story you can watch play out on its own. It is not a description of something attained by a privileged few. It’s not a reward for being in the right place at the right time. Dreaming requires your active participation. Plan for success. Structure that single thought in a unique way that describes joy, contentment, peace, happiness and success for you on a very personal level. Nurture and feed that thought so it can grow. Chance opportunities will present themselves, but don’t rely on chance. Rather, be prepared to forge ahead when doors open for you. If you dare to dream, be tenacious in pursuit of that dream. Invest yourself heart and soul.

Even before you reach your goals, you will inspire people to set their own. With every challenge that knocks you down, people will see you as a Luminary when you get back up and soldier on.

If you want to change the world in a positive way, dream with passion.

See the path to the finish line as your life’s journey. And when one dream ends, celebrate and start a new one. Show us how it’s done. Simply, dream. Do it.

Debra Keirce is an internationally collected artist who lives in Northern Virginia, USA. Debra paints from life, photo references, and her imagination. Her paintings are very realistic, but her subject matter is nothing that exists for you to readily photograph. For this reason, her art is often referred to as hauntingly familiar. Art critic Brian Sherwin, Editor of The Art Edge, commented on Debra’s still life paintings. Sherwin said, "Artist Debra Keirce approaches her still life paintings with a playful sense of surrealism. The work I observed appears to capture a dream-like quality. This quality is heightened by Debra’s love of unique still life arrangements." For Ms. Keirce, being an artist is the continuation of a dream that started in Detroit in 1978 when she was 17 years old. That was the year she decided to live a life of magic, and seemingly improbable, if not impossible, goals. She decided then and there to become a chemical engineer. She later left engineering to raise a family when she was on the verge of being promoted into management, raise three children as a stay at home mom, and began a successful career as a professional fine artist. And, the dream continues.

Ask, Believe, Receive – just three simple steps to create what you want. However, very often the second step, believe, can be the most difficult one. And yet it is the greatest step you will ever take. When you master believing, you have mastered your life.

To master believing, all you have to do is tip the balance of your thoughts, words, and actions, from ‘not believing’ to believing. The ONLY thing that can ever get in the way of manifesting what you want, is having more thoughts of ‘not believing’, speaking more words of ‘not believing’, and taking more actions of ‘not believing’, than you are of believing. Base the majority of your thoughts, words, and actions in believing, and the law of attraction must obey you. Rhonda Byrne “The Secret”

“Many of us hurry through life going from one place to the next, focused on conquering the next mountain, making the next deal, running the next errand, and believing we will never have enough time to do all the things we need to get done. Yet, there is all the time in the world if we just realize that we are the creators of this life we choose to live. That’s right. Life is a series of choices and being free from stress is one of those choices.Whether your business life is overly complicated or your personal life (or both), you have chosen this current system of chaos. “

Leading with Purpose Leading with VisionLeading with Heart Leading with AttentionLeading with Integrity Leading with DisciplineLeading with GenerosityLeading with CredibilityLeading with GraceLeading with SpiritPutting it all TOGETHER … A recipe for SUCCESS!

Lead Well … Lead Right,

Many of life’s failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

– Thomas Edison

Have you ever noticed that two people can confront the same circumstances with very different reactions? This is a matter of attitude and nothing else. Freedom is being able to say, “Rich or poor, alone or with a mate, physically healthy or not, employed or laid off, I believe that peace of mind is possible.” We have all experienced what it is like to be having a perfectly fine day and have a situation or crisis arise that sends us into a tailspin. It may be something small like a traffic jam making us late, or something more severe like the loss of a job. Our response can seem automatic.

Though at first it may be difficult to accept, freedom depends on recognizing that you’re not upset because of what occurred, you are upset because of how you perceive the situation. Key to Attitudinal Healing is recognizing that you are not a victim of the world.

Another way of saying this is: There is absolutely nothing in the world that has the power to ruin your day. If you are upset, it is because you have directed your mind to be so. Initially these truths can be hard to accept because you have become so accustomed to giving your power away.

Every time you blame another person for your unhappiness you are giving your power away. Stop blaming and start healing.

Connections are a choice Reputation is a choice The work is a choice Words are a choice Leading is a choice

No one can be responsible for where or how we each begin. No one has the freedom to do anything or everything, and all choices bring consequences. What we choose to do next, though, how to spend our resources or attention or effort, this is what defines us.

One hit wonders

These are artists who gave up too soon, or lost their nerve when it came to making another leap.

A one-hit wonder is a legend who stopped early.

You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he is willing to climb it himself. — Andrew Carnegie

is priceless. Not what you want to hear, but what you need to hear. Not imaginary, but practical. Not based on fear, but on possibility. Not designed to make you feel better, designed to make you better.

Seek it out and embrace the true friends that care enough to risk sharing it.

That’s what most leaders and owners and bosses and customers want, isn’t it?

We want employees who know the why, not just the details of the how. We want customer service people and partners and vendors who understand.

Which is what we get, at least until we encounter the first time that we’re unpleasantly surprised. It’s in that moment, when we demand a refund, or fire someone, or insist on rules being followed to the letter—that’s when it all falls apart and stops being a relationship based on understanding and turns into one that’s built on compliance to the rules.

If you want the people you work with to act with understanding, then you must trust them to use their best judgment, even when that means you didn’t get exactly what you said you wanted. The failure is yours, because you didn’t help people understand the reasoning. When you accept responsibility for that failure, when you educate instead of demand, you can gain the benefits of working with people who understand, instead of merely comply.

Speedometer confusion

The number on the speedometer isn’t always an indication of how fast you’re getting to where you’re going.

You might, after all, be driving in circles, really quickly.

Campbell’s Law tells us that as soon as a number is used as the measurement for something, someone will get confused and start gaming the number, believing that they’re also improving the underlying metric, when, in actuality, they’re merely making the number go up.

Here are a few numbers that often the result of speedometer confusion: